One of the best runners in Golden Valley High School history just finished his four-year career at the school.

Days later, senior Nolan Del Valle assured his running career will continue when he signed a National Letter of Intent with the University of California, Irvine last week.

The senior said he made his decision after narrowing his options to UC Riverside or UC Irvine, which both offered him spots on the cross country/track and field teams.

Ultimately, he felt Irvine was the best course of action.

“I’m definitely a California person,” De Valle said. “I love to be near the beach and Irvine seemed like the place to be because it’s close to Newport and I’ll be getting an opportunity to not only run in college and be on a good team, but to get a great education from the school.”

The senior wrapped up his fourth year of varsity track and field on May 11 at the CIF-Southern Section Division II prelims at Moorpark.

Throughout high school, Del Valle was one of the Foothill League’s top runners in the 3,200-meters. But his major successes were enjoyed during the fall season when he ran cross country.

As Golden Valley’s cross country program rose from obscurity to one of the state’s top programs, Del Valle was along for the ride.

He’s the only Golden Valley athlete to have participated in CIF State Cross Country Championships in each of his four years of high school.

Of those four races, his best individual finish came in 2011, when he finished seventh overall and was the team’s No. 2 finisher as a junior. That team won the school’s first state title just a week after winning a CIF-SS Division II crown.

This past fall, Del Valle qualified again for the state finals, but this time he did it as an individual since Golden Valley failed to qualify as a team for the first time in four years.

Del Valle took 15th in the state Division II race.

Now, as one of the last remaining pieces of Golden Valley’s historic state title run, Del Valle will carry on his legacy at UC Irvine.

Coincidentally, he’ll be reunited with former Golden Valley co-cross country head coach Chris Evans, who is now an assistant track and field coach at UC Irvine. Evans coached Del Valle for three years before stepping down at the end of last season.